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Adult Beginners is an intimate, small-scale indie that, via a wrap-up that’s a tad too tidy, undercuts its authentic appeal. But while the film’s conclusion points at an excessively simplistic study of family and aging, what precedes it is richly funny and definitively realistic. Rose Byrne and Bobby Cannavale nicely translate their real-life romance to the married characters of Justine and Danny; their dynamic, as new parents and spouses of many years, is effortlessly natural and yet marred by a twinge of displacement. In this conveyance of arrested development, director Ross Katz can go as funny as situating Byrne in the back seat of her car, munching on chips with eyes glued to her tablet as she skips out on responsibility for an afternoon, or as poignant as holding the camera on Cannavale, as he brushes the teeth of his exhausted, bed-ridden wife.
Nick Kroll completes this triangular character study, disrupting the family’s artificial sense of stability as Justine’s self-centered brother, Jake. Katz eventually hones in too heavily on Jake’s redemption, not entirely surprising since the film begins with his downfall. But the director does a solid job of bouncing this trio of characters off of one another; they emerge fuller and more complex, as we’re able to see them through multiple lenses. Ultimately, Adult Beginners is a flawed and inessential work of independent cinema. But there’s a lot to recommend here, from great actors doing great work to humor that’s as relatable as it is reliable. B